Test an encryption and decryption method (developed by me) on the images kept on Azure cloud.

Question

Dear all I wanted to test an encryption and decryption method (developed by me) on the images kept on Azure cloud. Could u please let me know the procedure to deploy my own encryption and decryption method.

Answer 1

Hello Dr P S Brahmanandam,

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A and thank you for posting your questions here.

Problem

I understand that you would like to deploy and test your custom encryption and decryption methods on images stored in Azure.

Solution

Everything will start from having an Azure Subscription, then, here are the best practices steps with detailed resource links to deploy and test your custom encryption and decryption methods on images stored in Azure.

1. Start by creating an Azure Storage Account using the Azure Portal, Azure CLI, or Azure PowerShell. Here's a basic outline using the Azure Portal:
   1. Sign in to the Azure Portal.
   2. Navigate to Storage accounts and click "Create."
   3. Fill in the necessary details such as the Subscription, Resource Group, and Storage Account name.
   4. Choose the region and performance options based on your needs (Standard or Premium).
   5. Select the redundancy option (LRS, ZRS, GRS, or RA-GRS) for data durability.
   6. Click "Review + Create" and then "Create."
   7. More details can be found on the Azure Portal Storage Account Guide: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-account-create
2. Upload Images to Azure Blob Storage: Once your storage account is created:
   1. Go to the "Containers" section and create a new container for your images.
   2. Upload your images using the "Upload" button in the container.
   3. For more detailed instructions, refer to the guide on [managing blob containers using the Azure portal: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/storage-blob-containers-portal
3. Implement Encryption and Decryption: Develop your encryption and decryption methods in your preferred programming language. You can upload these scripts to Azure Functions or use them in a local application that interacts with Azure Blob Storage. To secure the images:
   1. Download the image from Blob Storage.
   2. Encrypt the image** using your method.
   3. Upload the encrypted image back to Blob Storage.
4. Access Control and Security: You can manage access using Shared Access Signatures (SAS) to provide temporary, secure access to the storage account without sharing your account keys. This is particularly useful if you want to allow specific users or services to access the images temporarily. Details on setting up SAS can be found on https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-sas-overview
5. Testing and Validation: After implementing the encryption and decryption:
   1. Test the functionality by uploading and downloading images.
   2. Validate the encryption and decryption** to ensure data integrity and security.

References

For more reading and detailed instructions, you can refer to the full guides on creating and managing Azure Storage.

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-account-overview Accessed, 7/29/2024.

Source: Using SAS for secure access. Accessed, 7/29/2024.

Accept Answer

I hope this is helpful! Do not hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions.

** Please don't forget to close up the thread here by upvoting and accept it as an answer if it is helpful ** so that others in the community facing similar issues can easily find the solution.

Best Regards,

Sina Salam

Answer 2

Dear Sina

Thanks for your suggestions. I successfully uploaded a file on Blob storage (See the file's hyperlink)

https://andy1234.blob.core.windows.net/1234/Drakensberg.jpg

But, I struck at Stage 3) Implement Encryption and Decryption: Develop your encryption and decryption methods in your preferred programming language. You can upload these scripts to Azure Functions or use them in a local application that interacts with Azure Blob Storage.

I did not find Azure functions to implement my code (Matlab code) on the image.

Secondly, as I am working to complete a research paper/report using this approach, could you please suggest to me how to use MS Azure flow that takes my image, and allows me to apply my code on the downloaded images, followed by decryption?

I am equally happy to receive a similar kind of work documents from you conducted by others so that I can keep them in my work as a reference.

Best rgds,

Andy